This invention relates to imitation cheese products, such as cheddar, processed American and especially mozzarella cheeses, wherein the caseinates are partially or totally replaced by pregelatinized high amylose starches.
Early attempts to reduce cheese costs led to the development of cheese analogs in which vegetable fat replaced the more costly milk fat. Such analogs were usually manufactured by traditional methods from skim milk containing dispersed vegetable fats and were generally referred to as "filled" cheeses.
Later economic incentives and technical advances led to the development of fabricated cheese analogs manufactured fundamentally from casein or its derivatives, vegetable fats or oils, salts, acids, and flavorings. Since casein derivatives are legally defined as nondairy ingredients, the fabricated analogs were referred to as "imitation" cheeses.
Imitation cheese products included very high-moisture content cheeses such as cream cheese; high moisture content cheeses such as blue cheese and mozzarella, the latter accounting for a major portion of the casein-based imitation cheese market; medium-moisture cheeses, such as cheddar and provolone; low moisture cheeses, such as romano and parmesan; and pasteurized processed cheeses such as American cheese, cheese spreads and cheese products. These imitation cheese products provide the flavor and functionality of natural cheese at a reduced cost and, in addition, are lower both in calories and cholesterol since the animal fat has been replaced by vegetable fat.
Sodium, potassium, and calcium caseinates, as well as those salts generated in situ by treating acid casein and rennet casein with the appropriate alkali, are used in the preparation of imitation cheese products. Besides providing a major protein source, the caseinates, alone or in combination, possess unique setting, textural and emulsification properties that make them ideal, and their moderately low viscosity permits their use at high solids.
The current high cost and uncertain future availability of casein and caseinates have become a major concern to food processors. For these reasons, the processors have been trying to find a readily available caseinate substitute, preferably a low cost substitute, to partially or totally replace the caseinates in imitation cheese products. Some attempts have been made to utilize dry vegetable protein isolates (e.g. soy isolates) as replacements. The isolates lack the functionality of the caseinates and have generally only been useful as extenders. The isolates have to be specially treated to provide cheeses with sufficient melt (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,349,576 issued Sept. 14, 1982 to W. F. Lehnhardt et al.) and even then severe shearing during the cheese preparation will substantially reduce the melt value. A recent article in Food Processing (October 1981, pp. 28-29) discloses that a protein mixture (25% casein, 25% soy flour, 25% wheat gluten, and 25% alfalfa protein) is being used with some success in imitation mozzarella cheese; however, the final product does not provide "all desirable characteristics, including flavor".
Thus, there is still a need for readily available caseinate replacement which will provide the gelling and emulsion-stabilizing properties required during the cheese preparation and which will still provide cheese products having a desirable flavor and textural properties (i.e., especially gel, melt, and shredding and slicing characteristics) comparable to the caseinate-based imitation cheeses.
Flours and starches have been used in various cheese products as thickeners and/or binders as well as to improve specific properties. They have not, however, been used as caseinate replacements to provide the properties typically supplied by the casinates.
In natural cheese products, for example, cyclodextrin has been added to increase moisture retention and storage life (Jap. Kokai Tokyo Koho 81 75,060); phosphorylated starch has been used as a thickener in blends of Cheshire and Emmenthal cheese to provide a nonstringy product (Fr. No. 1,570,860); aqueous corn starch mixtures (in place of the previously used milk or butter) have been blended with melted ripe cheese to give a stable soft food product having the consistency of butter (Fr. No. 1,566,665); starches have been used in processed cheese products prepared from natural cheese, milk powder and other ingredients (Food Engineering, November 1980, p. 25); and pregelatinized corn, potato and tapioca starches have been used as stabilizers (against the deleterious influences of freezing and thawing) in cheese cake and cheese pie fillings (U.S. Pat. No. 3,666,493 issued May 30, 1972 to J. A. Bluemake). In addition, potato starch (3-6%) has been used in admixture with a heated whey solution (65.degree. C.) as a coating to improve the general appearance of hard cheeses (Pol. No. 54,548).
In cheese analogs and simulated cheese products, for example, corn starch hydrolysates (e.g., corn syrup) have been used to bind the water and prevent or retard its loss, as well as to add gloss, palatability, and body texture, to cheese foods based on vegetable oils, animal or vegetable proteins, and emulsifying metal salts (U.S. Pat. No. 3,310,406 issued Mar. 21, 1967 to D. A. Webster); ungelatinized flours (e.g. 3% tapioca flour) have been added, as optional ingredients (0-5%), to a caseinate-containing cheese substitute to aid in the firmness of the cheese substitutes resembling pasta filata or cheddar cheese (Austrian No. 335,830; Ger. Offen. No. 2,411,945; U.S. Pat. No. 3,922,374 issued Nov. 25, 1975 to R. J. Bell et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,104,413 issued Aug. 1, 1978 to J. D. Wynn et al.); flour and hydrogenated vegetable oils have been used as the matrix in intermediate moisture (about 12%), high flavor-impact cheese analogs containing dehydrated cheese and artificial flavorings (Food Product Development, June 1980, pp. 42-43); gelatinized high amylose starches and their derivatives have been used as binders for various edible protein pieces in integral simulated cheese products containing no fat (U.S. Pat. No. 3,836,677 issued Sept. 17, 1974 to J. A. Freck et al.); and starch (preferably corn starch) has been used with glucono-.gamma.-lactone as a cogulant in fresh cheese-like products prepared by heating a thermally coagulable protein (whey protein, liquid albumen, liquid whole egg, albumen powder, or whole egg powder) and whole and/or skimmed milk (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,369,196 issued Jan. 18, 1983 to Y. Sukegawa).
Pregelatinized starches (e.g., corn, wheat, waxy maize and tapioca) have been used in high protein extruded cheese products (U.S. Pat. No. 3,741,774 issued June 26, 1973 to M. P. Burkwall). these simulated cheese products are particularly suitable as a pet food or for human consumption because of their high protein content and shelf-stability (up to 6 months at room temperature). Unlike natural or imitation cheeses, they must include significant amounts of sugar and/or sugar equivalents which provide the requisite bacteriostatic effect. Also unlike natural or imitation cheeses they contain little or no edible fat or oil and, as a result, do not melt at about 93.degree. C. (200.degree. F.), a temperature at which most natural and imitation cheeses melt (see Col. 1, lines 47-50). The product can be extruded into small strands and compressed to give the "effect of cheese melted" on cooked hamburger or formed into small blocks to simulate conventional cheese. The components are about 1-25% cheese (more destroys the cohesiveness of the mixture), 5-35% of the sugar or sugar equivalents, 5-30% of any pregelatinized starch, 10-50% of a high protein binding agent (e.g., soy flour, casein, caseinate, and the like), and sufficient water to give a final moisture content of 20-40%, the percentages being by weight and totaling 100%. The use of from 1-7% by weight of an edible fat or oil is optional.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide starches for use as partial or total caseinate replacements in imitation cheeses, especially mozzarella cheese.